One Big Lie

We now know what many have suspected for some time: Lance Armstrong is a liar and a bully and cheat. Bob talks with NPR's Mike Pesca about Oprah's questions and Armstrong's answers during his Thursday night confession on OWN, Winfrey's TV Channel.

Bob's connection of Armstrong's codename for EPO "Dr. Strangelove" was AWESOME.On the other hand, if it were pronounced "Poe", as in Edgar Allan, that might be appropriate to, since Armstrong will probably compete - nevermore.

back to the point - "Lance Armstrong is a liar and a bully and cheat"...and there is a huge legal weight about to drop on him. Not only did he commit perjury in the USA, he also committed perjury in England when he won his libel suit...so he's gonna have the legal systems of at least 2 countries after his sorry a$h...and he well deserves it.

more than his hopes for competing in triathlons...he has/had aspirations of a political nature & just might be attempting to play on his 'sorriness' in Texas...

He does not deserve anything except the troubles he brought on himself w/his overriding ego.

OTM makes mistakes and doesn't always correct them, to be sure. But Mr. Pesca is correct in paraphrasing Mark McGwire on the Hall of Fame. From Sports Illustrated here:

Listen to what Mark McGwire said in an interview after being hired as the Dodgers hitting coach after last season. McGwire is an admitted steroid user who retired before any testing took place."It's a mistake that I have to live with for the rest of my life," he said. "I have to deal with never, ever getting into the Hall of Fame. I totally understand and totally respect their opinion and I will never, ever push it. That is the way it's going to be and I can live with that.

It is curious that this piece does not include any mention of the wider media reaction to Armstrong's performance on Oprah's show, not even her own public statements of disappointment and frustration with Mr. Armstrong made in the days leading up to it's airing.

I understand that there are deadlines and that a Thursday night event is difficult for OTM to cover in the same week. But the reactions shared by Bob and Mr. Pesca are oddly non-representative of the wider media story about this event.

It is also odd that no attempt was made to differentiate between differences within this genre. The retired vs. the mid-career. The moral leader vs. the performer. Cheating in a professional capacity vs. cheating in one's private affairs.

Thus, this piece was surprising lacking in context and light. Surprising, that is, for an OTM piece. (But not so much for a piece with Mr. Pesca's involvement.)

Upon what basis does Pesca claim that Mark McGwire "pretty much knew he was never going to get into the Hall of Fame"?

There are two problems with this statement.

First, it professed knowledge of what Mr. McGwire thinks (or "knows). Has McGwire ever said that he does not expect to get into the Hall of Fame? Has he even given a strong indication of this? Or does Mr. Pesca have special mind-reading abilities?

Second, it professed knowledge of the future. Not just the time period between Mr. McGwuire's public apology and Mr. Pesca's statement, but knowledge about the what will happen over the course of the next ten years -- at least!! Does Mr. Pesca have some special prescient abilities, too?

There is another way to view Mr. McGwire's apology, one far simpler and far more in line with all of the other public apologies: He was trying to preserve his professional future. And his professional future would be much enhanced by enshrinement in the Hall of Fame, even if it takes many years to achieve. (Note: he has a total of 15 years of opportunity to be voted in by the baseball writers before the veteran's committee gets unlimited opportunities to review his credentials.)

Why did Mike Pesca refer to Jimmy Swaggart by only his last name soon after referring to Bill Clinton and Mark McGuire by both their first names and last names? I'm sure there were some listeners of the program who were not familiar with Jimmy Swaggart or his first name.